Meet Some of Our Staff

Lyn has been with CISRS since its inception in 1978. Lyn holds an M.S.W and has an extensive background in human service fields, including aging, employee satisfaction, HIV, housing, mental health, prenatal care, sexual abuse, and substance abuse. Lyn is retiring from Western at the end of July 2003, but will be available for consulting.

Kathy worked at CISRS from January 1989 through August 2000. She worked directly with many of CISRS's clients in developing, implementing and overseeing research projects. Prior to her position with CISRS, Kathy worked in the President's Office of Research and Public Service at University of California, Berkeley.

Ruth Ann joined the staff for the second time in January 2001, having done her MSW internship with CISRS in 1991. Ruth Ann has worked with the statewide Michigan Foster and Adoptive Parent Association and Michigan Family Independence Agency before returning to CISRS. She also worked at Michigan State University for many years.

Ruth joined the staff in May 2000. She has a strong background in accounting and brings with her extensive business management experience.

Dan joined the CISRS staff in the Fall of 2000. He brings technical computing skills that complement the balance of the staff. Web design, on-line surveys, data analysis, database design/maintenance and computer programming are his specialties.

Siva joined the CISRS staff in the Fall of 2002. A very reliable and dependable staff member, Siva very patiently and accurately oversees data entry and analysis of survey data utilizing Excel and SPSS or Statistical Package for Social Sciences data analysis software.

Wendy first offered her services to CISRS as a consultant when she moved to Kalamazoo from Colorado in 1999. Wendy had been the director of an organization similar to CISRS at the University of Southern Colorado's School of Social Work. She produced a community indicators report for Pueblo and has participated in numerous research studies. Wendy, who was director of Building Bridges, also works with the Nonprofit Alliance and Poverty Initiatives.

Jason joined CISRS as a Research Assistant fall 2001. He is a creative writing and philosophy major. After assisting with the SAD Screening for Adolescent Depression project, which focused on high school freshmen, Jason began investigating ways to put together resources on campus for WMU students who are experiencing depression.

James joined CISRS as a volunteer during the summer of 2001, and returned for a second year in 2002. He enjoys working with computers and numbers. He also likes music, and can play a variety of percussion instruments.

Lynne fulfilled a sociology internship requirement with a placement at CISRS during the Spring and Summer of 2001. She took major responsibility for coordinating the Employment and Training Needs Study for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

Sarah joined CISRS as a volunteer during the summer of 1999 and has continued to volunteer each summer during high school. She enjoys tennis. Sarah's father was a Graduate Assistant with CISRS in 1978.

Carla fulfilled a sociology internship requirement with a placement at CISRS during the Spring and Summer of 2001. She took major responsibility for coordinating the Choices in Healthcare Careers study and the Survey of Interdisciplinary Rural Health Education Alumni.

Toni joined CISRS as an intern during winter 2002. She is a sociology major. The primary project Toni has been working on is an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing. In addition to gathering data on demographic and housing characteristics about the county, Toni designed the survey used to measure the general population's knowledge of antidiscimination laws, barriers to housing access and respondents personal experiences with housing discrimination.

Deana completed her second year of social work internship requirements with a placement at CISRS during the Fall of 2000 and Winter of 2001. As Policy, Planning & Administration was her concentration, she was involved in a wide range of activities including writing a grant proposal, developing budgets, developing questionnaires, managing and analyzing data and writing narrative interpretation.

CISRS believes strongly in service learning, through which both community organizations and students benefit. CISRS provides rich research experiences for graduate assistants and interns, many of whom come from business, computer science, computer economics, engineering, geography, psychology, public administration, social work, sociology and statistics.

In addition to the few paid student positions, CISRS also welcomes serious students who want experience. While many of these are volunteers who are interested in the experience, others enroll for credit as an independent study or an internship. Some students qualify for work study.

The regular CISRS staff are occasionally supplemented by faculty who work with us to assist on one of our many research projects or on a project that they bring to us.

CISRS put together a list of all the graduate assistants and students who have worked at CISRS since 1978. This will enable employers to check dates of employment, as well as enable us to brag about our students as they make a reputation for themselves.

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Persons who served CISRS as Board Members, Staff or Interns

Dear former students... if your name is not on the list or the dates do not match, please let me know. We are constructing the database from memory and old archived records going back more than 27 years. Because the list is so long, we are only including those who worked for CISRS at least one full semester (or research project) and had satisfactory to excellent performance appraisals. Also, if you have a photo of yourself, either current or from the time span you were at CISRS, please send to me.

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